title: Engineered antibodies for molecular imaging of cancer.
abstract: Antibody technology has transformed drug development, providing robust approaches to producing highly targeted and active therapeutics that can routinely be advanced through clinical evaluation and registration. In parallel, there is an emerging need to access similarly targeted agents for diagnostic purposes, including non-invasive imaging in preclinical models and patients. Antibody engineering enables modification of key properties (immunogenicity, valency, biological inertness, pharmacokinetics, clearance route, site-specific conjugation) in order to produce targeting agents optimized for molecular imaging. Expanded availability of positron-emitting radionuclides has led to a resurgence of interest and applications of immunoPET (immuno-positron emission tomography). Molecular imaging using engineered antibodies and fragments provides a general approach for assessing cell surface phenotype in vivo and stands to play an increasingly important role in cancer diagnosis, treatment selection, and monitoring of molecularly targeted therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. Electronic address: awu@mednet.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D004337:Drug Carriers; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015202:Protein Engineering; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D004337:Drug Carriers; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
keywords: Engineered antibody fragments; ImmunoPET; Positron emission tomography; Radiolabeling; Site-specific conjugation